Free Republic

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., proposed slashing budgets regarding public safety, such as prisons and law enforcement, as the state simultaneously grapples with a crippling deficit and doubles down on climate goals relating to equity. The California Democrat's proposed budget, released in May, notes that "difficult decisions" are necessary to address the estimated $27.6 billion deficit, which is projected to continue for years to come. It includes a $97 million cut to trial court operations, $10 million to the Department of Justice's Division of Law Enforcement and more than $80 million to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A Newsom spokesperson...

One neighborhood in East Oakland is so dangerous that construction workers apparently feel unsafe. A construction crew left a residential street unpaved and refused to return because the workers did not feel safe being in the neighborhood. The situation has left Sobrante Park residents with their street torn up and reduced to gravel with gaping potholes. Resident Shari Angarano said the unfinished road work made bumpy driving conditions on Colorados Drive go from bad to worse. “The ground is uneven and a lot of the gravel used to fill pot holes is being kicked up,” Angarano said. The unfortunate situation...

A 39-year-old man was arrested Monday morning for allegedly firing randomly at passing cars in Riverside County, killing a husband and father of four, authorities said. Deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department responded at 7:05 a.m. to the area of West Seventh Street and South San Jacinto Avenue to a report of a man shooting at passing vehicles, according to a sheriff’s department news release. Two people were found shot and multiple cars had been hit by gunfire; both victims were hospitalized and one died from his injuries, according to authorities. Julio Cesar Rodarte, a 39-year-old San Jacinto resident,...

California owes the federal government tens of millions of dollars for incorrectly claiming medical care reimbursements for noncitizens, a federal audit found. The Golden State must repay nearly $53 million to the federal government after it “improperly” claimed reimbursements from the Medicaid program for illegal immigrants and other noncitizens, according to a recent report by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The findings emerge as California grapples with a massive budget deficit in the tens of billions of dollars. ... The issue surrounds how California officials calculated federal reimbursements for noncitizen...

This article has been updated to include another post from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) about the revelations.The more we learn about what went on with the now former January 6 Select Committee, the worse it seems to get. The June 2022 testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, considered a star witness by the Committee's members, all of whom were selected by then Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has once more garnered attention. It turns out that former and potentially future President Donald Trump's Secret Service driver wanted to quickly testify to refute her testimony, though he was "rebuffed."Just the News is reporting that...

House investigators have obtained evidence showing that former President Donald Trump’s Secret Service driver wanted to quickly refute testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson alleging a struggle in the presidential limousine during the Capitol riots but the Democrat-led January 6 committee rebuffed him for months. The evidence was confirmed to Just the News both by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the chairman of the House subcommittee that is investigating the Jan. 6 tragedy now for Republicans, and a transcript of the driver’s interview that was conducted months after he first offered to testify. [snip] The transcript of the driver’s testimony reviewed by Just the...

The more we learn about Nancy Pelosi's handpicked January 6th Committee, the more corrupt they appear. First we learned they destroyed evidence, and now we're learning they 'rebuffed' important testimony. Almost as if the committee was not so much concerned about finding out what really happened on January 6th, but was more concerned about making sure a specific and very damaging-to-the-Right narrative stayed put. And Liz Cheney helped pave the way. Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley Remember the widely reported story of Trump struggling with his driver in the presidential limo on January 6th? The driver’s testimony shows that he offered to...

NEW: In an internal memo to ICE— The ERO Executive Associate Director says that CBP and ERO will not question illegal immigrants who cross the southern border and are processed for expedited removal while the limitation is in effect regarding their fear of return... “If a noncitizen subject to the Presidential Proclamation is processed for expedited removal and manifests fear or an intention to apply for asylum or related protection while detained in ICE custody, the noncitizen must be referred to USCIS…” One source saying, “In other words nothing has changed…”

“What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is my own.” James Joyce penned those words while writing Ulysses, but he could have easily written them were he composing a report on the political attitudes of the pseudo-elite greenie left of the modern era.From an article by Greg Rehner at Fox News:California clean energy project threatens thousands of protected Joshua trees: reportsA California-based renewable energy company plans to clear thousands of protected Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert to make way for a solar project that will generate electricity for nearly 180,000 homes in coastal neighborhoods instead of the impacted communities,...

...The study, partially funded by Klamath County, shows that the region's farms and ranches, worth over $368 million annually and employing over 3,000 people, are in jeopardy. The study highlights that this is due to water restrictions, which have already led to a loss of $12 million in income, with more at risk if restrictions continue. ...

A series of fire hydrant thefts in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles has left residents without a working hydrant near their homes. The thefts of four hydrants near the intersection of 82nd Street and Hooper Avenue mean the block doesn’t have even one operating hydrant, KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw reports.

Two days after President Donald Trump was convicted in a New York City courtroom, his supporters rallied in downtown Huntington Beach, Calif. at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Shocking footage has emerged showing a gigantic 'shantytown' that has sprung up in Oakland, as the California city's slide into crime-ravaged squalor continues. Michael Oxford, the host of CaliBased, posted a video on May 31 of massive temporary houses built along service roads that open up into main roads in Hooverville, Oakland. The footage showed trash strewn around scores of houses that were built of wood, tarp and other discarded materials.

A white teacher in Sacramento County is suing his union for reserving one seat on its governing board for a non-white member — an issue of diversity versus discrimination that is percolating in courts across California. Isaac Newman, a high school social science teacher, said he wanted to run for a newly created position on the Elk Grove Education Association last December, but was barred from applying because the union created it last year as a “BIPOC seat,” available only to members who are Black, Indigenous or other people of color. “Union officials apparently believe that the best solution to...

Democrats and their allies in the liberal media launched a smear campaign against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito earlier this month in an effort to prompt his recusal from upcoming cases related to former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 protests. Jodi Kantor, running lead on the initiative for the New York Times, failed to land a decisive blow with her May 16 flag story, which the Washington Post had years earlier wrote off as a nothing-burger. Meatless, but desperate for results, Kantor found another flag to concern-monger about: the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, also known as the Pine...

The ‘iDIVERSE’ program bars white and Asian researchers from applying.. The University of California, Los Angeles, medical school was hit last week with whistleblower allegations that its admissions office has for years discriminated on the basis of race, in violation of California law, by holding black and Latino applicants to lower standards than their white and Asian counterparts. The allegations triggered an email message from the dean of the medical school, Steven Dubinett, who denied the claims and said that students and faculty "are held to the highest standards of academic excellence." He subsequently told an obscure Los Angeles Times...

A former college professor has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison over a string of arson fires in Northern California in 2021 as fire crews were battling the second-largest fire in the state’s history. Gary Stephen Maynard, 49, of San Jose, pleaded guilty in February to three arson counts in connection to fires in the Shasta National Forest and near the Dixie Fire in the Lassen National Forest. The Dixie Fire burned over 1,500 square miles after igniting on July 13 and destroyed over 1,000 homes. Maynard was accused of setting fires behind firefighters battling the...

Dollar Tree has saved 170 shops that were set to be shuttered by rival 99 Cents Only after it went bankrupt.It is a boost for budget shoppers in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas - who have been mourning the loss of the popular chain.Dollar Tree announced on Wednesday that it had bought rights to the leases for the stores.At the same time, it has paid for the 99 Cents Only's 'intellectual property,' meaning it has the option to keep some stores open under the brand or even open new ones using it.West Coast-based 99 Cents Only had a cult following...

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that 5.8 million fentanyl-laced pills have been confiscated throughout California since January by the state’s Counterdrug Task Force in collaboration with local and federal law enforcement agencies. As state officials celebrate consistently increasing confiscations of the synthetic opioid, though, experts say that the seizures will likely not affect the illicit drug market significantly. Over the last three years, the number of fentanyl-laced pills confiscated statewide has increased dramatically. In 2021, only 1.5 million pills were seized statewide. That number jumped almost sevenfold to 10.3 million pills seized in 2022, and then more than doubled...

Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers defends pro-Hamas campus occupations as 'peacefully demonstrating' The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply "peacefully demonstrating." The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply “peacefully demonstrating.” The Tuesday statement from the AFT came in response to a hearing last week from the House Education and the Workforce Committee where leaders of Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, were grilled regarding their response to campus anti-Israel encampments. ”AFT members...